Our speakers

Rajeev Samant, CEO, Sula Vineyards

Rajeev Samant is the founder and CEO of Sula Vineyards. After schooling Samant did his Bachelor's degree in Economics from California’s Stanford University and also completed a Master’s degree in Engineering Management. Post that he worked for two years at Oracle Corporation in Silicon Valley, managing the Compensation group.

In 1993 Samant returned to India and established Sula Vineyards in Nasik which was the first winery in Nasik in 1999. It was a pioneering effort and today Nasik is considered India’s wine capital with 35 wineries. In 2002 Sula was the first Indian winery to be the subject of a feature in Wine Spectator, the world’s leading wine magazine. Starting with a sale of 50,000 bottles in the first year, Sula emerged as India’s largest wine producer after completing a decade in 2010 with 3 million bottles sold.

Rajeev Shah, Managing Director & CEO, RBSA Advisors

Rajeev is the Managing Director & CEO of RBSA Advisors, a Leading Global Independent Valuation & Transaction Advisory firm having 8 offices across India, Singapore and Dubai. RBSA has executed various assignments in more than 25 Countries as a Valuation and Financial Experts.

Rajeev Specializes in Mergers & Acquisitions, Financial Valuations, Due Diligence, Fund Raising Advisory etc. He has also been involved with some of the Major Mergers & Acquisition Engagements in India, as well as the Major Disinvestment and Privatization assignments on behalf of Government of India.

He is an Mechanical Engineer, MBA, CFA and a Qualified Valuer from ICAI. He has further specialized in Valuation and accredited himself as a Master of Valuation in Real Estate (Gold Medalist) and Master of Valuation in Plant & Machinery (Gold Medalist). Rajeev is also an Eminent Member of Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (MRICS), UK.

Rajeev heads the Financial Advisory and Investment Banking practice of RBSA. His role spans across various verticals ranging from Managing the Overall Development & Operations of the Company with Leadership roles across Business Strategy, Business Development, and Management of various Advisory Practices of RBSA. Rajeev is an active Speaker at various National & International Forums and Conferences on Valuation and Mergers & Acquisitions.

Rajen Padukone, MD & CEO, Manipal Health Enterprises

Rajen Padukone is the MD & CEO of Manipal Health Enterprises (Manipal Hospitals), the corporate healthcare and hospitals entity of the Manipal Education & Medical Group. Manipal Hospitals’ healthcare network comprises of primary, secondary and tertiary facilities. It has 16 hospitals covering 5,000 beds in India and overseas.

Mr. Padukone’s varied experience of over 33 years, covers the healthcare, education, banking and financialservices and manufacturing sectors. His healthcare experience includes establishing start-ups, bringing about a turnaround in operations and building & linking healthcare networks, from primary to tertiary care.

He joined Manipal Group in 1998 and over the past 16 years has worked in both their health and education verticals. His experience in the area of education includes managing various initiatives covering the entire spectrum of university education - from campus based education to distance and distributed learning and corporate & continuing education.

Mr. Padukone is the Vice President of the Healthcare Federation of India (NATHEALTH). He is also the Co-Chair in FICCI’s Health Services National Committee, a member of the CII National Committee on Healthcare and also a member of the Governing Council of the Healthcare Sector Skills Council.

Prior to joining the Manipal Group, he worked for 13 years with ANZ Grindlays Bank, in the areas of investment banking, international finance and retail financial services. He has also worked with IL & FS Ltd, Crompton Greaves Ltd and Kirloskar Oil Engines Ltd.

He is a Post Graduate with a Masters in Economics from the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, and a Masters in Management Studies from the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai.

Rajender Bhandari, Director - Systems Engineering, NetApp

Rajender Singh Bhandari is the Director of Systems Engineering for NetApp India. He and his team are responsible for architectural and technology relationships as well as NetApp platform evangelism across the ecosystem in the region.

Rajender has been associated with NetApp for the past 5 years and is an industry veteran with c30 years of rich experience in Information Technology, Service Technology Consulting, DC Technologies, Service Delivery, Project Management and Managed services.

Rajender joined NetApp after stints at Tata Unisys, Digital Equipment, Sun Microsystems and SmartTrust Infosystems.

Rajendra Barot, Senior Partner, AZB & Partners

Rajendra Barot, Senior Partner at AZB & Partners, earned his Bachelor of Law from the University of Bombay in 1994. He is a member of the Bombay Incorporated Law Society. He has been a partner of the Firm since its inception.

The focal areas of his practice include Dispute Resolution, Restructuring Of Companies and Mergers and Acquisitions with a special focus on insurance and mining.

Mr. Barot heads the Litigation and Arbitration Team of AZB’s Mumbai office. He has advised clients in a variety of forums including quasi-judicial tribunals, High Courts of several States in India and the Supreme Court of India, including for corporate commercial disputes, monetary suits, administrative actions and constitutional matters.

Mr. Barot has also advised several large insurance companies in connection with their entry into the insurance sector in India in the life insurance, non-life insurance and health insurance space by setting up new joint venture companies and also by acquiring a stake in existing insurance companies. He has advised on all aspects of transactions in the insurance sector, starting from structuring of the transaction, advising on various Indian legal issues, negotiating and drafting the transaction documents, up to filing of the necessary applications with the insurance regulator. Within the mining sector, he has advised clients in relation to acquisition and transfer of mining rights in relation in Major and Minor Minerals, including limestone, bauxite, aggregates and coal linkages.

Rajendra Gandhi, CMD, Stovekraft

Rajendra Pratap Gupta, , Healthcare Policymaker & expert

Rajendran N, CEO, IFTAS

Rajesh Aggarwal, MD, Insecticide Pvt Ltd

Rajesh Aggarwal, Managing Director., Insecticides India Ltd, is a commerce graduate. He possesses a Diploma in Marketing. In 1993 he joined his family's business as Marketing Incharge. Combining this work experience with utilizing state-of-the-art technologies, he took the additional responsibility of production and allied fields.

Rajesh Bansal, CEO, Reserve Bank Innovation Hub (RBIH)